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Ravensburger’s Labyrinth board game was originally published in 1986, alongside the fantasy Jim Henson movie Labyrinth. It became a smash success, and spawned several other variations of the original Labyrinth game, where players raced each other to collect treasures within the maze. This year, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of its release, the game has been transformed into an iOS app.
The aMAZEing Labyrinth app keeps the gameplay of the original board game intact, but adds three new ways to play. There are two new single player options: Puzzle and Time Duel, and a new multiplayer Duel mode.
I’ve never played Labyrinth before, so this app was a new experience for me. I went into it not knowing what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised with the gameplay. In single player Puzzle mode, the aim is to move the jumbled tiles of the board around to make a pathway so that your avatar (I chose the witch) can reach the treasure. Tiles can be moved up and down or left and right, but only within rows that have a yellow direction area.
After a tile has been moved, you can move your avatar down the pathway that was created, or leave it where it is standing to switch to the next tile move. The goal is to get the avatar to the treasure in the fewest number of moves, which can be a challenge that requires you to think several moves ahead. There are ten different puzzle packs, which equates to plenty of gameplay.
With multiplayer mode, you can play online through Game Center, or with friends using local play on the same device. In Duel Mode, the object is to collect eight treasures before your opponent does. Classic mode can be played with up to four players on one device. The goal here is to collect the proper treasure and then move your avatar back to the starting point, all by moving tiles around. Whoever can do that first is the winner.
Playing classic mode locally with a friend was my favorite aspect of the game, though I did also enjoy the single player Time Duel. This is a great way to keep older children entertained on long car trips or vacations, without worrying about losing game pieces. It’s a challenging game that’s easy to learn but difficult to truly master.